That's it, "SL 2.0" is out of its closet. No more NDA prevents people from talking about it. Honestly, I think it should better have stayed in its closet. I just can't stand the thing!
First thing you should notice are the "fugly" colors. (Fuzzy and ugly.) It's all dark grey with a little touch of greyish dull green... and black. Let's not forget the black that you can't miss.
Nevermind. I've been fixing the skin of all my clients since the first day it became possible. Let's start.
First thing to do is to check the preferences in the "Me" menu. (Weird name...) They have been stripped down a lot! But I still found a good thing: You can disable the "dead cow" animation from here. I mean you can easily prevent your avatar from going AFK/Away when idle. Apart from that, nothing really interesting in here. And especially not the "fugly" default colors for chat and IMs.
Let's log in.
I won't mention the fact that the whole plugin system silently failed so that I don't have anything HTML based. This is just a bug, not one of the million hindrances of that clunky viewer.
My avatar took forever to rez. It reminded the old days when you could be "ruthed" from a few seconds to forever. Enabling the HTTP textures doesn't really improve things (The option is in the Advanced menu.) and the cache is still so borked and useless.
Now that you're in-world, you suddenly realize that you need that wonderful 30" screen you can't afford. The bottom bar has shrunk to a single line but that's only to give more room to the top bar which floats like a dark ceiling over your head. There are 2 new lines: the browser-alike navigation bar and the favorite bar. Both are deactivatable but without the navigation bar, you just can't see easily where you are. And when those bars are activated, they shrink the view.
And the navigation bar is really useless. You can go back and forth amongst places you visited but you never know where. There is a button with a down arrow at the end of the URL bar. It seems to be here to show your history. (It doesn't work.) You'll have to use the monster sitting silently, hidden beyond the right border of your screen. Not yet!
First, let's chat a little. Prepare to suffer!
Forget about reading anything that is beyond 3 words. Chat messages appear in a tiny solid black box the size of a post stamp. And to make things worse, by default, the name of the talker appears with the picture of their profile reduced to a tiny icon atop the text. Meaning: There isn't much room already but a large space is wasted for nothing.
Run to the preferences. Chat tab. Enable plain text chat history. The name isn't very descriptive of what the option does but that will turn back the chat to old style with name and text on a single line. (It will also apply to the IMs.)
If you don't have the time to read a sentence, you can open the Chat history... and cry. What you get is a solid black box obscuring a quarter of your screen in the bottom left corner. You can move it but that's all. It will hide another quarter of your screen elsewhere. What a choice!
I hope you didn't forget to watch also the bottom right corner of your screen. That's where IMs appear. Tiny solid black boxes popping with a flash of color and sound if you haven't already disabled what the Preferences call "Buttons sounds". The text isn't squeezed in its tiny box, it's just cut. Since you can't read anything in here, let's open the IM window. You just have click the blob of pixels (Profile picture reduced to a 16x16 icon). Please, be nice with Linden Lab and don't laugh at the wasted space used to show the profile picture, just click the button to hide it.
Before a second avatar sends you an IM, let's run to the preferences and enable the tabbed IMs. When you have a row of blobs of pixels to choose from, things tend to become quite fuzzy. Without mentioning that if you don't do that, each thread of IM will require its own solid black window. You just don't have enough room. You haven't seen the monster on the right side of the screen yet!
Chat is a pain and so are IMs. What was wrong with the Communicate window? You could easily switch in between chat and IM threads, start new ones. Everything what easily accessible in one place. Must be one of those examples of non-broken fixed things.
The system notifications also appear in the same corner than the IMs, they aren't cut but they can be worse than IMs: They steal the focus and block you if they contain a button. Really unpleasant. And Linden Lab forgot one little thing: The dialog to accept, decline or mute inventory offers. Now, somebody can spam you with inventory offers, you won't have the time to see your IMs and your inventory will explode under the flood without you being able to do anything. Even without going to such extremes, you still have to go and dig into your inventory to retrieve whatever somebody just gave you. Really not fun.
I haven't tested the dialogs but I read you must chase them if other notifications appear before you had the time to click anything. Must be "fun".
Now, let's talk about the monster. All the rest is just minor nuisances compared to what we have here: The toaster. (It seems to be the official name.) There is a row of tiny vertical tabs that make a giant thing appear. One third of your screen, full height. Non resizable. Solid black. And the killing detail: When you open it, your whole view is squeezed to the left. Come on! Give me the name of the one who had this idea, I want to make sure he/she never touch this client any more.
The tabs are: "Toggle", to open/close the thing but you can also close by using the currently highlighted tab. "Home", the page Linden Lab doesn't know what to do exactly yet. "My profile", which is so very useful to be able to access in one click. "People", with your friends and groups. "Places", with your landmarks and your teleport history. "Inventory", explicit. "My appearance", since you really really want to change it every minute so it's now accessible in one click.
Seriously, "My profile" and "My appearance" are useless in here. They are also located in the "Me" menu.
There are two new things in the "People" tab: "Near by" which is a rudimentary radar up to 130m and "Recent" to re-open IM threads you closed. Two good additions for the Communicate window... if it were still there.
"Places" is the tab to which the most attention has been given. It's really well done. You have access to your landmark folder, you can retrieve all the ones lost in your inventory, select favorites and navigate in your teleport history. You can even search.
Nothing to say about "Inventory", no real change except that now all the folders are the same.
Now, the reasons that make this thing totally unusable. Everything opens in it. Land informations in the "Places" tab, avatar's profiles in the "People" tab, object informations over the "Inventory". You can only have one opened at any time. How do you drop an item over somebody's profile? Huuu... You either have to start an new IM thread or to open a second inventory window. That makes really sense.
One stupid thing is that despite the huge place taken by this monster, the profiles and the picks are all cut and you have to click a button or the "more" link to be able to see then completely. Ridiculous. The profiles and picks in the previous clients were much better.
And with all that solid black all around the world view reduced to a post stamp, claustrophobia is getting closer and closer. You edit and object, open your inventory, answer an IM and that's it, you're separated from the world by a wall of solid black.
The worst thing is that Linden Lab took 8 months to do nothing. The leaked informations from June 2009 show pretty much what is in this new client. Minus some cosmetic changes. At that time, Alexa Linden crucified the thing in a very lengthy mail.
Nothing has really changed. Now, Snowglobe just got visited by the SL 2.0 revisionists and inherited from the same awful UI, loosing all its improvements and patches in the process.
Last nail to the coffin: A comment from Q Linden on the Jira about the possibility to have the old UI. In simple words: No. Never. Don't even ask.
"Hi, folks. I'd like to explain why you won't see this implemented in Viewer 2 (or probably any 2.x viewer).
The UI isn't just a layer. It's not just a bunch of buttons whose arrangement is arbitrary – we just put something like 50 person-years into development of this product, and a pretty good chunk of that was the design and implementation of the new UI. The interaction design of the new sidebar, the new menu systems, the inspectors. (...)
I don't wish to deny that some people like some features of prior viewers, nor do I contend we got everything right the first time. But the request in this issue is both technically infeasible and not the direction we intend to go. Therefore, I am closing this issue. (...)"
Linden Lab just don't care about their users. They fully respect their long tradition of shoving things down our throats, asking for comments, and ignoring them.
So long and thank you for all the fish. I'm going to find a 3rd party client.
2010-02-25
2010-02-18
Scripters Choir
Seriously, I'm starting to hate scripters, especially the mammothes haunting the forums. I was doing my round in the websites orbiting Second Life and my internal Statistics Bar showed a sudden rise of blood pressure while I was reading a post in a scripting forum. Stupidity has this effect on me.
Here is how it usually happens: The original poster asks their question, the answers arrive and a bad word is written. Today, it was "timer". Immediately, the Scripters Choir jumps in the thread with all the delicacy their metric tons allow. (Imagine a mammoth dressed in a flashy gospel style robe.) They raise their arms/legs/trunks toward the sky and start singing: "Lag, lag, lag!" Stop it!
It's so stupid that it could be a comic effect in a soap opera. Imagine the main characters discussing in their couch, they pronounce one of the trigger words, like "timer", "sensor", "physics", or what-not... and BOOM! The Scripters Choir is rezzed in the background. Botox-smiling faces due to a broken animation overrider, particle blings from head to toes over their fullbright robes, shaking with ardor while they annihilate your hearing and break all window panes in a kilometer radius with their ultra-soprano voices: "Lag, lag, lag!"
Seriously, stop it!
Here is a word of wisdom: Functions don't create lag, scripters create lag.
Think about it. For a script to work, the sim has to take care of it, so it means that it has less time for the rest. To me, that's the definition of "lag". So, dear scripters, please quit scripting, you're creating lag!
Functions shouldn't be banned from your scripting vocabulary just because they allegedly "create lag". You must consider the overall impact of your script. If you use both a timer and a sensor faster than what the virtual machine can handle, you will obviously create some real lag. Otherwise, if you need a timer and sensor, go for it. The time needed by the sim to process your script can't be avoided. You're creating "lag". Period.
A concrete example: The dirigibles I'm working on right now use everything that "must" be banned: physics, sensor, timer. But they still don't register on the Top Scripts list of a sim. OK, I must admit that one dirigible was detected once using 0.07ms of script time. (Less than 1/10 of ms.) And they use around 0.2ms of physics time when they are moving. All this just to say: Use what you need... carefully!
And don't forget to mute the Scripters Choir!
Here is how it usually happens: The original poster asks their question, the answers arrive and a bad word is written. Today, it was "timer". Immediately, the Scripters Choir jumps in the thread with all the delicacy their metric tons allow. (Imagine a mammoth dressed in a flashy gospel style robe.) They raise their arms/legs/trunks toward the sky and start singing: "Lag, lag, lag!" Stop it!
It's so stupid that it could be a comic effect in a soap opera. Imagine the main characters discussing in their couch, they pronounce one of the trigger words, like "timer", "sensor", "physics", or what-not... and BOOM! The Scripters Choir is rezzed in the background. Botox-smiling faces due to a broken animation overrider, particle blings from head to toes over their fullbright robes, shaking with ardor while they annihilate your hearing and break all window panes in a kilometer radius with their ultra-soprano voices: "Lag, lag, lag!"
Seriously, stop it!
Here is a word of wisdom: Functions don't create lag, scripters create lag.
Think about it. For a script to work, the sim has to take care of it, so it means that it has less time for the rest. To me, that's the definition of "lag". So, dear scripters, please quit scripting, you're creating lag!
Functions shouldn't be banned from your scripting vocabulary just because they allegedly "create lag". You must consider the overall impact of your script. If you use both a timer and a sensor faster than what the virtual machine can handle, you will obviously create some real lag. Otherwise, if you need a timer and sensor, go for it. The time needed by the sim to process your script can't be avoided. You're creating "lag". Period.
A concrete example: The dirigibles I'm working on right now use everything that "must" be banned: physics, sensor, timer. But they still don't register on the Top Scripts list of a sim. OK, I must admit that one dirigible was detected once using 0.07ms of script time. (Less than 1/10 of ms.) And they use around 0.2ms of physics time when they are moving. All this just to say: Use what you need... carefully!
And don't forget to mute the Scripters Choir!
2010-02-14
Heresy
WARNING: If you are easily offended by a joke about religion, just look away!
Here is a little something I heard in Second Life. It passes from keyboards to screens and the grammar has been worn out a bit in the process so I cleaned it up.
Prayer to the Lindens
Our Lindens, who are in the Lab,
Hallowed be your prims.
Your Grid-dom come, your will be done,
On Main Grid, as it is in The Preview.
Give us this day our daily crash,
And forgive us our spammery,
As we forgive those, who grief against us.
And lead us not into private parcels.
Amen.
On a more philosophical than religious level, I also recommend The Tao of Linden.
I especially love this paragraph and I put it into my picks:
Walk in our Residents' shoes.
We are blessed by some of the most informed, passionate, committed customers imaginable. They are our reason for being, they are our world, and we call them Residents. They are an insuperable source of advantage and an awesome responsibility. In every choice you make, consider how your choice will impact their experience.
This one should be displayed in every room of the Lab, as a reminder. Some people always forget about us, the residents. May this Prayer to the Lindens be my way of showing respect and gratitude to the real Lindens in-world and behind the scene.
Here is a little something I heard in Second Life. It passes from keyboards to screens and the grammar has been worn out a bit in the process so I cleaned it up.
Prayer to the Lindens
Our Lindens, who are in the Lab,
Hallowed be your prims.
Your Grid-dom come, your will be done,
On Main Grid, as it is in The Preview.
Give us this day our daily crash,
And forgive us our spammery,
As we forgive those, who grief against us.
And lead us not into private parcels.
Amen.
On a more philosophical than religious level, I also recommend The Tao of Linden.
I especially love this paragraph and I put it into my picks:
Walk in our Residents' shoes.
We are blessed by some of the most informed, passionate, committed customers imaginable. They are our reason for being, they are our world, and we call them Residents. They are an insuperable source of advantage and an awesome responsibility. In every choice you make, consider how your choice will impact their experience.
This one should be displayed in every room of the Lab, as a reminder. Some people always forget about us, the residents. May this Prayer to the Lindens be my way of showing respect and gratitude to the real Lindens in-world and behind the scene.
2010-02-12
U-Turn behind a smoke screen
No dust has settled down. Instead of a nuclear bomb, Linden Lab just used a smoke bomb. The forums weren't destroyed, they just moved from one building to another behind a smoke screen. And the buildings were also exchanged so that when you ask a cab to drive you to the forums URL, you arrived at the new building, thinking that it was just re-painted.
Actually, you land on a page that resembles vaguely the old forums with its main sub-forums. The question now is: What's the use of SL Answers?
But Linden Lab's smoke bomb left a smell in the air. Their "focused, transparent, extensible" software gives a seriously crippled version of the forums.
First, the layout has a non-sensical fixed width. My window which isn't maximized in any way has a useless horizontal slider. (There's nothing more to see on the right.) And if I enlarge the windows, the useful part of the window is just a narrow band in the middle. Stupid!
And the hateful Dazzle colors are killing my eyes!
Then you can't say if you already read a thread. There's no marking, not even an HTML triggered color change. Nothing. And the "focused, transparent, extensible software" always jumps to the last post, assuming you read the original post, even if you don't. (I hate that.) If you don't land on the first page, you'll have to click your way back to the first post.
I won't say much about posting. I couldn't. My browser isn't supported. I got a spinning thing in a white box and it's still spinning. Of course, I can't switch to a more regular way of posting, like a plain text box. My browser has an integrated spellchecker, thanks.
Just to be thorough, I tried with Firefox. I even install an add-on to change the ugly colors... but I didn't find a thread I wished to post into. And I don't need help. Maybe a farewell post? That's the only thing I can think about. I've been running in circles for hours to try to make this mildly bearable. (And I still haven't found where to change my f*cking signature!)
In the end, the forums landscape doesn't seem to want to change. There is still these giant towers in the middle and a most complete absence of life all around.
Or is it me who is looking for something that doesn't exist (any more)? I'm so pissed that I can't express how pissed I am.
Actually, you land on a page that resembles vaguely the old forums with its main sub-forums. The question now is: What's the use of SL Answers?
But Linden Lab's smoke bomb left a smell in the air. Their "focused, transparent, extensible" software gives a seriously crippled version of the forums.
First, the layout has a non-sensical fixed width. My window which isn't maximized in any way has a useless horizontal slider. (There's nothing more to see on the right.) And if I enlarge the windows, the useful part of the window is just a narrow band in the middle. Stupid!
And the hateful Dazzle colors are killing my eyes!
Then you can't say if you already read a thread. There's no marking, not even an HTML triggered color change. Nothing. And the "focused, transparent, extensible software" always jumps to the last post, assuming you read the original post, even if you don't. (I hate that.) If you don't land on the first page, you'll have to click your way back to the first post.
I won't say much about posting. I couldn't. My browser isn't supported. I got a spinning thing in a white box and it's still spinning. Of course, I can't switch to a more regular way of posting, like a plain text box. My browser has an integrated spellchecker, thanks.
Just to be thorough, I tried with Firefox. I even install an add-on to change the ugly colors... but I didn't find a thread I wished to post into. And I don't need help. Maybe a farewell post? That's the only thing I can think about. I've been running in circles for hours to try to make this mildly bearable. (And I still haven't found where to change my f*cking signature!)
In the end, the forums landscape doesn't seem to want to change. There is still these giant towers in the middle and a most complete absence of life all around.
Or is it me who is looking for something that doesn't exist (any more)? I'm so pissed that I can't express how pissed I am.
2010-02-07
Suburban area
A very common picture from american movies: A big town with a tiny bush of skyscrapers in the middle of a vaaaaaaaaaste totally flat suburban area.
This picture represents the situation of the forums dedicated to Second Life. The skyscrapers are the forums on secondlife.com and all the rest is the flat area lying around. There may be nice places around but they're invisible compared the giant towers casting their shadow on them.
And here come Linden Lab with their smiling face and a nuclear bomb in their back pocket: "Dear Residents, the forums will be nuked on tuesday, please step aside."
Seriously? Yes.
People have always complained about the antiquated and bugged software of the forums but they learned to live with it because there was pretty much nothing around. Besides, the plan of the area was very clear: straight right-angled streets, clear street name plates. In other words, the names of the forums were explicite and it was easy to find the right place to look for the information you wanted or to ask a question. And most of all, it was a snappy site with fast-loading pages.
Little parenthesis: Linden Lab must totally dislike snappy things. First they removed the snappy camera in favor of a rubberbanding one. I scripted a little something for that. (Shameless plug. It sales well.) Then they removed the snappy dashboard pages. I used to go there to check my friends in world. Now, everything and more is loading at the same time, it takes hours and I don't care about all this crap when all I want is the list of my friends in world! I scripted another something. I now use a bookmark to connect to a prim in world which gives me the list of my friends in-world in pure text. Nothing else. Period. (Sorry, not on sale.) End of parenthesis.
OK, the forums weren't pretty looking, not very Web 2.0, but that's not the main point of forums. They must be a convenient commodity. And they were. It was a place to go and focus on the task at hand: To search for the information you wanted or, in my case, to give a scripting... err... helping hand.
There was also a thick crust of old stuff lining the bottom of the tank of the forums but it was easy to ignore. Linden Lab could just have updated the software and mothballed the outdated forums...
Instead of that, here is was Linden Lab wants to shove down our throats: A psychedelic anthill. Flashy blinking tunnels haunted by virtual bulldozers pushing the rest of the anthill toward you, soliciting you at every crossroad, flooding you with some much information that you don't know where to look any more and you end up forgetting why you came here to follow fading away shiny colored lights dragging you in every possible corner. Very "Web 2.0" indeed.
Seriously? Yes.
I never visit the blogs of Second Life. I subscribed to a few threads and I read only what interests me from my news aggregator. I don't like to be fed by force whether I'm hungry or not.
When it comes to the nuclear future of the forums, some people suggest to give a chance to what should now be called the "blogorums".
I tried, I really tried. I can't. Even when you know that the forums will be around the tunnel labelled "Second Life Answers", you will be lost. The closest from what interested me in the real forums is the "Creating" thread and it's just a mess. Everything that is vaguely related to creation --or even sometimes not related-- falls in this tank. Good luck to find anything! Especially that you can't even search.
Right now, it's not very alive because everybody is still in the forums. But all I see in the future is just more mess. I want real forums with clear subjects. I registered on SL Universe which uses an updated version of the same software than Second Life forums. It's also very quiet since they are in the flat area around the skyscrapers but it looks promising.
In the meantime, I'm waiting for the nuclear mushroom to dissipate and I'll see what raises from the ashes. Two days left.
This picture represents the situation of the forums dedicated to Second Life. The skyscrapers are the forums on secondlife.com and all the rest is the flat area lying around. There may be nice places around but they're invisible compared the giant towers casting their shadow on them.
And here come Linden Lab with their smiling face and a nuclear bomb in their back pocket: "Dear Residents, the forums will be nuked on tuesday, please step aside."
Seriously? Yes.
People have always complained about the antiquated and bugged software of the forums but they learned to live with it because there was pretty much nothing around. Besides, the plan of the area was very clear: straight right-angled streets, clear street name plates. In other words, the names of the forums were explicite and it was easy to find the right place to look for the information you wanted or to ask a question. And most of all, it was a snappy site with fast-loading pages.
Little parenthesis: Linden Lab must totally dislike snappy things. First they removed the snappy camera in favor of a rubberbanding one. I scripted a little something for that. (Shameless plug. It sales well.) Then they removed the snappy dashboard pages. I used to go there to check my friends in world. Now, everything and more is loading at the same time, it takes hours and I don't care about all this crap when all I want is the list of my friends in world! I scripted another something. I now use a bookmark to connect to a prim in world which gives me the list of my friends in-world in pure text. Nothing else. Period. (Sorry, not on sale.) End of parenthesis.
OK, the forums weren't pretty looking, not very Web 2.0, but that's not the main point of forums. They must be a convenient commodity. And they were. It was a place to go and focus on the task at hand: To search for the information you wanted or, in my case, to give a scripting... err... helping hand.
There was also a thick crust of old stuff lining the bottom of the tank of the forums but it was easy to ignore. Linden Lab could just have updated the software and mothballed the outdated forums...
Instead of that, here is was Linden Lab wants to shove down our throats: A psychedelic anthill. Flashy blinking tunnels haunted by virtual bulldozers pushing the rest of the anthill toward you, soliciting you at every crossroad, flooding you with some much information that you don't know where to look any more and you end up forgetting why you came here to follow fading away shiny colored lights dragging you in every possible corner. Very "Web 2.0" indeed.
Seriously? Yes.
I never visit the blogs of Second Life. I subscribed to a few threads and I read only what interests me from my news aggregator. I don't like to be fed by force whether I'm hungry or not.
When it comes to the nuclear future of the forums, some people suggest to give a chance to what should now be called the "blogorums".
I tried, I really tried. I can't. Even when you know that the forums will be around the tunnel labelled "Second Life Answers", you will be lost. The closest from what interested me in the real forums is the "Creating" thread and it's just a mess. Everything that is vaguely related to creation --or even sometimes not related-- falls in this tank. Good luck to find anything! Especially that you can't even search.
Right now, it's not very alive because everybody is still in the forums. But all I see in the future is just more mess. I want real forums with clear subjects. I registered on SL Universe which uses an updated version of the same software than Second Life forums. It's also very quiet since they are in the flat area around the skyscrapers but it looks promising.
In the meantime, I'm waiting for the nuclear mushroom to dissipate and I'll see what raises from the ashes. Two days left.
2010-02-03
The great illusion
This post is due to a great frustration during my work in Second Life. (Expect some rantings.)
I'm scripting a system of dirigibles on a private sub-continent (a quite large group of themed private sims). Basically, it's like the subway but in the sky; the dirigibles go automatically from station to station with or without passengers. The script has been written for quite a while and it's a little wonder of simplicity. Just 16 KB is enough to make a dirigible store a route, draw 3D curves in between points, do linear maneuvers, and stop at every station... with a precision of 1 cm. Yes, I'm kind of proud of my work and I've received nothing but compliments.
Two dirigibles are already flying for the moment. One of them is just like clockwork and the other one stumbles along the way. It's not a problem with the script or SL physics, it's just that some landowners don't have a clue about land permissions.
The most useful of the land powers is the auto-return. If you don't want to see your land turn into a wasteland, set the auto-return. Just don't set it below 5 minutes because it would create sim lag.
Once the auto-return is set, it's up to you to decide if you want other people to be able to rez on your land or not. And it becomes safe to allow objects to enter instead of seeing cars, planes and what-not abandonned, stuck at the border of your land... Usually, on a land without auto-return over which you have no power.
To disable scripts only annoys noob scripters who don't know how to ignore this restriction. For you, landowner, it has absolutely no benefit. Zero, nada, niet! It will certainly not stop a copybot and it will not improve the performances of the sim, unless you own it all.
Privacy is an illusion in Second Life. The only real privacy you can have is when you keep your real life separated from SL. That's privacy. But when you're in-world, the best you can do is to isolate yourself like a spider suspended in a corner under the ceiling of the sim... and then move to your own private island when you realize that the minimap betrays your presence whatever the privacy settings you have in your client.
I won't talk about banlines which are totally forbidden on the sub-continent where I work... and I take care of my blood pressure.
I'm scripting a system of dirigibles on a private sub-continent (a quite large group of themed private sims). Basically, it's like the subway but in the sky; the dirigibles go automatically from station to station with or without passengers. The script has been written for quite a while and it's a little wonder of simplicity. Just 16 KB is enough to make a dirigible store a route, draw 3D curves in between points, do linear maneuvers, and stop at every station... with a precision of 1 cm. Yes, I'm kind of proud of my work and I've received nothing but compliments.
Two dirigibles are already flying for the moment. One of them is just like clockwork and the other one stumbles along the way. It's not a problem with the script or SL physics, it's just that some landowners don't have a clue about land permissions.
The most useful of the land powers is the auto-return. If you don't want to see your land turn into a wasteland, set the auto-return. Just don't set it below 5 minutes because it would create sim lag.
Once the auto-return is set, it's up to you to decide if you want other people to be able to rez on your land or not. And it becomes safe to allow objects to enter instead of seeing cars, planes and what-not abandonned, stuck at the border of your land... Usually, on a land without auto-return over which you have no power.
To disable scripts only annoys noob scripters who don't know how to ignore this restriction. For you, landowner, it has absolutely no benefit. Zero, nada, niet! It will certainly not stop a copybot and it will not improve the performances of the sim, unless you own it all.
Privacy is an illusion in Second Life. The only real privacy you can have is when you keep your real life separated from SL. That's privacy. But when you're in-world, the best you can do is to isolate yourself like a spider suspended in a corner under the ceiling of the sim... and then move to your own private island when you realize that the minimap betrays your presence whatever the privacy settings you have in your client.
I won't talk about banlines which are totally forbidden on the sub-continent where I work... and I take care of my blood pressure.
2010-02-02
Unspecified future
This morning, I wanted to talk about the future of Second Life and coming out of the blue, here is what Liisa said:
(I mostly corrected only the punctuation and I added capitals.)
In 10 years maybe? Any way, back to the reality...
We know what the immediate future of Second Life holds: Viewer 2.0, shadows, meshes, LSL improvements and C#.
I know nothing about the Viewer 2.0 except that the marketing department would like to sell it to us a "SL 2.0". Bleh! (I hate marketing which promotes shit with cool names.) All I know for sure is that only 2 reactions are possible: disappointment or a V*sta Syndrome.
Disappointment because we will have waited for so long that expectations will be very high. People will want to see all bugs fixed in "SL 2.0" even if these bugs aren't actually related to the viewer. And that won't happen. Neither global illumination with shadows nor meshes. Nothing. This is supposed to be only a user interface revamping.
Apparently LL forgot the (little) riots when Dazzle was released and it was only about a color change. Honestly, I'm sharpening my fork and preparing a stock of vaccine against the V*sta Flu... err... Syndrome.
Radical UI changes will not be more welcome than a change of colors. The core of Second Life is the old-timers who defintively don't need an UI ("that will be much more compelling and relevant for a new Resident." (Quote from Howard Linden on Second Life Blogs)
All that we, old-timers, will retain is "frustrating", "dramatically", "different", "new ways", "challenging transition". (Almost a sentence.)
I heard somebody talking about the 3rd party clients to avoid the V*sta Syndrome. But will these alternate clients become obsolete because not "SL 2.0"-alike? Hmmm... I have doubts. Does any of these clients currently have a different UI than the official client? I don't think so.
When I see the awful mess that LL is about to shove down our throats to replace the good old forums, I have big doubts about the definitions of "good" and "better".
But let's drop the subject. I know nothing about this Viewer 2.0 but I offically already hate it. First, I hate the way LL handled the whole thing behind closed doors barred with Non Discolure Agreements although it's supposed to be OpenSource. LL must want to make us a surprize, forgetting that the last one was Dazzle and it didn't go well. Second, I hate the fact that everybody is waiting for this client. All innovation in SL and in the alternate clients is suspended until the release.
Let's switch the shadows on. Ho, it's nice but it's not for you nor for me. If you want any kind of performances, you better have the last graphics card that will be made next year. Prepare your wallet!
The meshes are a subject which deserve a blog post just for themselves. The implications behind the technicality are very serious for the future of Second Life.
Scripting improvements. Finally something that talks to me. The minor glitch is that we have to wait for this damn Viewer 2.0 before being able to test the new functions. I don't expect to see a new Release Candidate until then. The whole project is really good but the team which takes care of it is greatly underpowered and they must focus on a few chosen ones amongst the large number of functions actually needed. We will get closer from the final goal of reducing the number of scripts in Second Life but probably not as close as expected.
A second layer of improvements will be necessary and it should happen with C#. This would definitively not have been my first choice for a language to replace LSL but we don't have much option beyond taking what LL offer to us. Babbage already said no to any improvement to LSL besides new functions. So...
Let's wait and see!
Liisa imagines the future
:: Simulators can handle a lot more avatars. Sim borders behave like parcel borders. Draw distance is 5 km by default.
:: We have gathered to the town hall square and LL has 500 employeesdressed up as riot cops to keep the demonstration of 50,000 avatars peaceful.
:: Governor arrives on the balcony of the town hall, she waits for the typing sound to stop before she starts.
:: Governor gets straight to the point. She tells us that the rumored system will apply within 6 months. She raises her hand to silence the massive typing sound that suddenly started in the crowd.
:: She tell us that there is no point slowing down the progress just to keep backwards compatibility. This is good news to many of us, but there is still people who think Mystitool is cool, they start to type again.
:: Governor tells us the new improvements in a nutshell and gives us a link to find out more details. People cheer and [CENSORED]
:: Suddenly some Mystitool user throws a blitz ball towards the governor. It doesn't reach her but falls into the crowd instead. Everyone's lagmeter turns to red.
:: The sim cleans the laggy blitz ball automatically but the riotcontrol Lindens lower their visor.
:: When no one is watching, Governor shakes her head and walks back in.
:: Most avatars start to take off or rez a vehicle to travel to their homes.
:: A small group stays behind, the Mystitool fanclub.
:: The end
(I mostly corrected only the punctuation and I added capitals.)
In 10 years maybe? Any way, back to the reality...
We know what the immediate future of Second Life holds: Viewer 2.0, shadows, meshes, LSL improvements and C#.
I know nothing about the Viewer 2.0 except that the marketing department would like to sell it to us a "SL 2.0". Bleh! (I hate marketing which promotes shit with cool names.) All I know for sure is that only 2 reactions are possible: disappointment or a V*sta Syndrome.
Disappointment because we will have waited for so long that expectations will be very high. People will want to see all bugs fixed in "SL 2.0" even if these bugs aren't actually related to the viewer. And that won't happen. Neither global illumination with shadows nor meshes. Nothing. This is supposed to be only a user interface revamping.
Apparently LL forgot the (little) riots when Dazzle was released and it was only about a color change. Honestly, I'm sharpening my fork and preparing a stock of vaccine against the V*sta Flu... err... Syndrome.
Radical UI changes will not be more welcome than a change of colors. The core of Second Life is the old-timers who defintively don't need an UI ("that will be much more compelling and relevant for a new Resident." (Quote from Howard Linden on Second Life Blogs)
All that we, old-timers, will retain is "frustrating", "dramatically", "different", "new ways", "challenging transition". (Almost a sentence.)
I heard somebody talking about the 3rd party clients to avoid the V*sta Syndrome. But will these alternate clients become obsolete because not "SL 2.0"-alike? Hmmm... I have doubts. Does any of these clients currently have a different UI than the official client? I don't think so.
When I see the awful mess that LL is about to shove down our throats to replace the good old forums, I have big doubts about the definitions of "good" and "better".
But let's drop the subject. I know nothing about this Viewer 2.0 but I offically already hate it. First, I hate the way LL handled the whole thing behind closed doors barred with Non Discolure Agreements although it's supposed to be OpenSource. LL must want to make us a surprize, forgetting that the last one was Dazzle and it didn't go well. Second, I hate the fact that everybody is waiting for this client. All innovation in SL and in the alternate clients is suspended until the release.
Let's switch the shadows on. Ho, it's nice but it's not for you nor for me. If you want any kind of performances, you better have the last graphics card that will be made next year. Prepare your wallet!
The meshes are a subject which deserve a blog post just for themselves. The implications behind the technicality are very serious for the future of Second Life.
Scripting improvements. Finally something that talks to me. The minor glitch is that we have to wait for this damn Viewer 2.0 before being able to test the new functions. I don't expect to see a new Release Candidate until then. The whole project is really good but the team which takes care of it is greatly underpowered and they must focus on a few chosen ones amongst the large number of functions actually needed. We will get closer from the final goal of reducing the number of scripts in Second Life but probably not as close as expected.
A second layer of improvements will be necessary and it should happen with C#. This would definitively not have been my first choice for a language to replace LSL but we don't have much option beyond taking what LL offer to us. Babbage already said no to any improvement to LSL besides new functions. So...
Let's wait and see!
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